The University of Notre Dame has received a $10 million grant from Lilly Endowment to fund the new Pathways to Communion Program at the McGrath Institute for Church Life. This program aims to strengthen the ecosystem of theologically informed service opportunities for young Catholics in the United States.

Notre Dame is one of 12 organizations being funded through Lilly Endowment’s National Youth and Young Adult Initiative on Faith & Service, which is designed to nurture and deepen the faith of Christian young people through intentional service and reflection about the meaning of service in their lives. Funding to Notre Dame will enable the institute to develop a support hub for 10 partner organizations that provide youth service opportunities and conduct national research designed to generate insights about young people’s experiences.

Katherine Angulo, program director of the Thriving in Ministry Initiative at the McGrath Institute, will lead the Pathways to Communion Program. Michael Baxter, a visiting associate professor at the institute, will serve as faculty adviser. Research will be implemented by Timothy O’Malley, the associate director for research at the institute, and Laura Upenieks, a sociologist from Baylor University.

The McGrath Institute, which partners with Catholic dioceses, parishes and schools to address pastoral challenges with theological depth and rigor, is uniquely suited to oversee this program, said John Cavadini, the McGrath-Cavadini Director of the institute.

“The Church is one of the principal agents of service in this country and worldwide, yet there is no easy way for service organizations within the Church to form their people in a properly theological ideal of service. This grant will allow us to do precisely that,” Cavadini said. “The McGrath Institute is well-positioned to respond to this need because of its access to the insights of leading scholars as well as its record of collaboration with dioceses and organizations across the nation.”

The McGrath Institute will become a hub of support, offering subgrant funds to allow partner organizations to create or expand programming in their communities. These organizations are Alive in You, Andre House of Hospitality, the Catholic Campus Ministry Association, the Diocese of Charleston, the Diocese of Helena, the Diocese of Honolulu, the Diocese of Orange, ESTEEM (a joint partnership between Leadership Roundtable and Saint Thomas More Catholic Chapel and Center at Yale University), Iskali and the McGrath Institute’s Notre Dame Vision program.

“We believe this program’s articulation of the theology of Christian service can help to set up programming that will explore the deepest roots of this theology,” Angulo said. “The program will be flexible enough to develop formation opportunities that are not one-size-fits-all and that can match the local cultures of each individual organization while emerging from a universal vision of Christian faith and service.”

Over five years, the leaders of the 10 partner organizations will participate in gatherings on Notre Dame’s campus, receive on-site visits by program managers and experience ongoing supervision with robust guidance in program evaluation and improvement. The institute will also develop a community of collaboration among these leaders that will continue beyond the grant.

At the same time, researchers led by O’Malley and Upenieks will have access to the leaders of the partner organizations, while partner organizations will have the opportunity to shape research questions and gain access to findings.

“You often hear people say that young people in the Church today are rigorously committed to service as part of their religious lives. But we have to admit that we don’t quite know as much as we think about the religious lives of young people in the Church today,” O’Malley said. “How do they pray? What’s the connection to service? How has COVID-19 changed their relationship to the Church? These are the kind of questions that our research will take up, in a longitudinal project that includes quantitative and qualitative dimensions alike.

“This research will help our partner organizations respond to the deepest needs and desires of the young adults they’re working with. The research we will undertake and the development of the support hub are designed to support each other.”

Cavadini noted that Christian service is modeled by Jesus Christ, who came into this life “in the form of a servant” (Philippians 2:7), and is thus an intrinsic element of Christian life.

“Service has a Eucharistic dimension because the Church is united by Christ’s self-giving love received in the sacrament of the Eucharist. Such love brings us to care for the least of these as an act flowing forth from Christian worship.”

Lilly Endowment Inc. is a private philanthropic foundation created in 1937 by J.K. Lilly Sr. and his sons Eli and J.K. Jr. through gifts of stock in their pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly and Company. While those gifts remain the financial bedrock of the Endowment, it is a separate entity from the company, with a distinct governing board, staff and location. In keeping with the founders’ wishes, the Endowment supports the causes of community development, education and religion and maintains a special commitment to its hometown, Indianapolis, and home state, Indiana. The principal aim of the Endowment’s religion grantmaking is to deepen and enrich the lives of Christians in the United States, primarily by seeking out and supporting efforts that enhance the vitality of congregations and strengthen the pastoral and lay leadership of Christian communities. The Endowment also seeks to improve public understanding of diverse religious traditions by supporting fair and accurate portrayals of the role religion plays in the United States and across the globe.

Contact: Carrie Gates, associate director of media relations, c.gates@nd.edu or 574-993-9220.